When the Democrats Go To War — Against Each Other - 3/17/25

After several weeks of flailing and muddled messaging, the Democratic Party found its voice last week. They saw a clear injustice committed and spoke out powerfully against its perpetrator. They delivered their message with a clarity and forcefulness that had previously been missing, and there’s no question that they inflicted significant political damage on their septuagenarian target. It’s still unclear whether he will survive their attacks. 

The only potential problem for them is that their missives were directed not at Donald Trump but at Chuck Schumer.

Schumer, who has been the Senate Democratic leader since 2017, has never been an inspirational figure in party ranks, but rather a logistician who keeps his members unified and makes the trains run on time. Since Trump’s election last November, he has often seemed lost when asked to rally his partisan troops and convince his members and the party grassroots to come together behind a clear strategic or communications objective.

When Trump was elected eight years ago, House Leader Nancy Pelosi filled this role. But Schumer is now paired with the less experienced Hakeem Jeffries, and both men have struggled to articulate a message to combat Trump or fashion a strategy to make sure that their voices are heard.  A new NBC poll released this past weekend showed that only 27 percent of Americans viewed Democrats in a favorable way, the lowest number of the modern era.

These frustrations erupted last week after Schumer orchestrated the passage of a Trump-endorsed Republican budget plan, much to the consternation of most of his fellow Democrats. Most of the party had been aggressively pushing for a full-throated opposition, which would have resulted in a government shutdown. To be fair to Schumer, he was in a no-win situation. A shutdown of government operations would have played into Trump’s hands, providing the president with the necessary authority to cut off funding for those programs that he opposed and further empower Elon Musk’s DOGE project to further reduce the federal workforce. But Schumer’s critics argued that providing votes for the GOP budget tacitly endorsed Trump’s goals and forfeited a rare, high-profile opportunity to thwart their nemesis.

Left with no good choices, Schumer may have chosen the worst possible option. Had he announced his decision—in either direction—immediately after the budget passed the House, he could have defused the drama by quickly settling the issue. But by prolonging the internal Democratic debate about how to proceed, the New Yorker may have unintentionally raised the emotional stakes on his dilemma by providing both factions with the time and the attention to turn what could have been a perfunctory discussion of budgetary process into a full-fledged battle for the party’s soul.

But what was even more striking than Schumer’s hesitation on how to move forward was the vehemence with which his own party lashed out at him after it was done. Unsurprisingly, party progressives were the angriest, as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called this a “huge slap in the face” and referred to “a deep sense of outrage and betrayal.” Former Biden White House senior advisor Susan Rice challenged him to “please grow a spine.” And the liberal group Indivisible called on him to step down from his leadership position.

More ominously were the noises coming from members of the party establishment. Pelosi referred to Schumer’s framing of the decision as a “false choice” and urged Democratic Senators to oppose the budget bill. And Jeffries, asked by reporters whether Schumer should be replaced and whether he had lost confidence in Schumer, responded to both by saying only “Next Question.”

Oof.

Last year’s presidential election should have taught Democrats that replacing an aging leader is not a magic cure-all for much more fundamental problems. (Ironically, it was Schumer himself who played a critical role in pushing Joe Biden toward the exit.) But the party seems intent on making Schumer a scapegoat for the hole in which they have found themselves. There is already talk about Ocasio-Cortez mounting a primary challenge against him, and the odds of a challenge to his leadership position are growing rapidly as well. 

In a week in which the Beltway conversation may have been about Trump’s declining poll numbers, an increasingly fragile stock market and shrinking consumer confidence, the political headlines have instead been dominated by the latest iteration of the Democratic Party’s circular firing squad. Regardless of whether or not Schumer survives, their road back to power just became even more challenging.